1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a self-propelled upright vacuum cleaner. More specifically, this invention pertains to a hand grip and upper handle assembly for a self-propelled upright vacuum cleaner and the manner of attaching such a hand grip and upper handle assembly to a self-propelled upright vacuum cleaner.
2. Background of the Invention
It is known to produce a self-propelled upright vacuum cleaner by providing a transmission in the foot or lower porion of the cleaner for selectively driving at least one drive wheel in forward rotation and reverse rotation for selectively propelling the cleaner forward and backward over a floor. A handgrip is commonly mounted to top of the bag housing in a sliding fashion for limited reciprocal motion relative to the bag housing as an operator pushes and pulls on the handgrip. A Bowden type control cable typically extends from the hand grip to the transmission for transferring the pushing and pulling forces applied to the hand grip by an operator to the transmission and thereby selectively actuating a forward drive clutch and a reverse drive clutch of the transmission.
Due to the limited space available in an upright vacuum cleaner for the transmission, the transmission must be very compact in design. The mechanism for engaging the forward and reverse drive clutches of the transmission must likewise be very compact and must operate in a confined space. As a result, the transmission must be activated by relatively small movements of the control cable relative to the transmission. In order to ensure that the forward and reverse gears of the transmission are reliably engaged, the length of the control cable between the hand grip and the transmission must be accurately adjusted. As such, the connection between the control cable and the hand grip must be made within tight tolerances, or else the length of the control cable between the hand grip and the transmission will be a little too long or a little too short. If the control cable is too long or too short, then the forward or reverse drive clutch of the transmission my fail to be engaged when an operator pushes and pulls on the hand grip.
Prior art self-propelled vacuum cleaners have typically been fully assembled at the factory in order to ensure that the control cable is accurately attached to the hand grip within the required tolerances. A fully assembled upright vacuum cleaner, however, must be shipped in a relatively large box. A large box makes it expensive to package and ship such a vacuum cleaner. As a result, it is desirable to ship upright vacuum cleaners with the upper handle unattached to the bag housing in order to reduce the overall height of the cleaner and thereby greatly reduce the size of the box required for shipping the cleaner. When a vacuum cleaner is shipped with the upper handle unattached, then the consumer must attach the upper handle to the cleaner. In self propelled upright vacuum cleaners, the consumer must then also form the connection between the hand grip and the control cable. As discussed above, if the connection between the hand grip and the control cable is not made within tight tolerances, then the transmission will fail to properly drive the cleaner in both forward and reverse.
A self propelled upright vacuum cleaner in which the upper handle assembly may be packaged unattached and subsequently attached to the bag housing by the consumer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,155,143. In the disclosed cleaner, the upper handle assembly is telescopically attached to the bag housing by vertically lowering the upper handle into an opening in the top of the bag housing. The upper handle assembly of the disclosed cleaner includes a control rod that extends down from the hand grip. A snap connector is located on the lower end of the control rod. A mating snap connector is located on the upper end of the control cable in the bag housing. The two snap connectors are located such that as the upper handle assembly is telescopically lowered into the opening in the bag housing, the two connectors are snapped together. Thus, the hand grip is automatically connected to the control cable when the upper handle assembly is attached to the bag housing by the consumer. However, the snap connectors in the disclosed arrangement are prone to being pushed vertically out of place when the handle is attached to the cleaner, such that the transmission fails to be actuated properly.